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8 February 2017

Blood Orange Roast Chicken / Frango Assado com Laranja Sanguínea.

Today I'm sharing this fabulous recipe with you all.

Blood oranges are in season now and at its best so, we have to use them as much as we can and you know, I love blood oranges and here on the blog, under the "blood orange" label, you can find a fair amount of blood orange suggestions.

As for this recipe, If you can't find blood oranges, you can use Navel oranges.

Remember that in this post I wrote that I would tell you more about Eva Flores "Adventures in Chicken" book in another post? Well, this is the post!

Eva Flores book is, as I expected, an absolute delight. Recipes and photos that are to die for!! Actually, I can't ever think about Eva Flores without thinking and relating Eva and Mónica Pinto, as I find their work so similar, great and gorgeous...

Anyway...

Eva Flores first book is all about chicken. Chicken in many ways and with many flavours...

I've already made a lot of recipes from the book and some are in the queue to be published and others, I'll have to repeat them because (as I told you here, I lost the photos in the PC that broke).

Of course you might be thinking that there's nothing special about a book full of chicken recipes, but actually there is! and what makes Eva's chicken recipes different from another dozen of chicken recipe books?

I tell you what! What makes them different is that all the chicken recipes are delicious and specially the roast chicken ones! The chicken is always flavourful, moist and super delicious!! Chicken breasts, that were something that were always leftover here at home, are now being battled to be the first to be eaten. Why? Because as I said, they're moist and delicious and they're not dry and boring!

Now, you might be wondering what's the secret for those juicy and tasteful chicken breasts but for me, there's no secret!

I knew that already, because in his book "In Search of Perfection" and about brining a chicken, Heston Blumenthal wrote: "Brining is a great way of tenderising the flesh and helping it to stay moist at the same time. The salt alters the proteins in such a way that they old on to moisture more effectively. The result is a much juicier chicken".

Actually and as I also wrote here, before I read this Donna Hay recipeand all the Eva Flores chicken recipes that I tried, the best roasted turkey I ever made or tasted, was precisely a Donna Hay brined turkey and that's the only one I now make every Christmas!

Just try brining your bird before you roast it and you'll see. There's no coming back! Let's go for the recipe then!

(serves 4)ingredients for the orange brine and chicken:

8 cups water

1/4 cup freshly squeezed blood orange juice

6 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 whole chicken (about 2kg), innards removed

method:

To brine the chicken, in a large bowl, whisk together the water, orange juice, salt, and cinnamon until combined. Place the chicken in a gallon-size resealable plastic bag and empty the brine into the bag with the chicken. Press out as much air as possible before sealing the bag and refrigerating it. Allow the chicken to rest in the brine overnight.

for the blood orange glaze:

1/4 cup chicken stock

3 tbsp blood orange juice

3 tbsp light brown sugar

2 tbsp white wine

2 tbsp rendered duck fat

1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp allspice

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

method:

In a small saucepan, bring the stock, blood orange juice, brown sugar, wine, duck fat, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and cardamom to a boil over medium to high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce the heat to low and simmer until thickened slightly (about 10 minutes).

Set aside.

to roast the chicken:

1 tbsp rendered duck fat

2 tsp fresh rosemary, finely chopped

1 tsp kosher salt

1 sprig fresh rosemary

3 blood oranges, cut into 12ths

method:

Preheat the oven to 220'C.

Remove the chicken from the brine, rinse lightly and pat dry.

Rub it down inside and out with the duck fat, chopped rosemary and salt.

Place the chicken in a roasting pan, place the rosemary sprig in the cavity and truss.

Arrange the blood orange slices in the pan around the chicken.

Pour the glaze into the pan around the chicken and lightly brush the chicken with the glaze.

Roast for 15 minutes.

Reduce the temperature to 190'C. and continue roasting, brushing the bird with the pan drippings every 15 minutes, for 50 minutes to 1 hour more, or until a thermometer inserted into the thigh of the bird reads at least 80'C.